


The (Not-So) Great Spider Threat

by overunderachiever



Series: Soulmate September 2020 [3]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Good Friend, M/M, Morality | Patton is Afraid of Spiders, animal only you and your soulmate can see, apparently pat's frog is not a tag, but that's not really relevant - Freeform, its mild enough that he can get used to them, that is a crime, when I say pat's afraid of spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25898128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overunderachiever/pseuds/overunderachiever
Summary: Virgil is moving into his dorm room at university with only the company of his spider soul-animal, Anna. But he didn't account for his roommate being his soulmate. Or that he would be afraid of spiders.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Soulmate September 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872199
Comments: 12
Kudos: 160





	The (Not-So) Great Spider Threat

**Author's Note:**

> Just for clarity, I'm not saying anyone can just "get over" arachnophobia - I know phobias can be very severe and I do not mean to belittle it. In this story though, Patton's fear of spiders is mild enough that he can get used to them.

Virgil sighed with relief as he carried the last box into his dorm room, kicking the door closed behind him as he went. He dropped the box unceremoniously on the floor and went to check on his soul animal, Anna, who was scuttling back and forth his desk in distress at being apart from him while he brought up the boxes. Virgil placed his hand on the desk near her, letting the spider come to him. She ran up his arm to rest on his shoulder, tucking in close to his neck. Virgil snickered at the tickle of her fuzz, and reached up to pet her soothingly.

"Now I'm gonna be doing a lot of unpacking, do you think you can cling on while I do that? Of course you can, you're a very clever spider aren't you? Yes you are! You are!" He cooed.

He would never admit to anyone just how affectionate he was with his soul animal - he had a reputation to uphold - but he really did adore Anna. He only hoped his soulmate (if he ever found them) would love her too.

Virgil spent the next ten minutes hastily unpacking. His roommate hadn't arrived yet but Virgil wanted all his things out of the way before he came so he could leave quickly if the forced interaction got awkward. He didn't have a lot to unpack and was just rearranging the bottom of his closet when his roommate pushed open the door.

"Hello there! You must be Virgil, I'm Patton!" Came a cheerful voice from somewhere behind him.

Virgil stood and backed out of the closet, turning to greet his roommate. He caught a glimpse of an adorable face, round glasses, and a mop of curly hair before the young man shrieked, dropped the box he was holding, and bolted from the room.

_Oh shit what was that? Did I do something? Ohnonono..._

At the loud noise, Anna had darted into Virgil's hood and he pulled himself from his panic enough to carefully reached in to reassure her, though she couldn't be persuaded to come out.

Virgil walked hesitantly over to the door that Patton had flung shut. It wouldn't open.

"Patton? You ok?" He called through the door. The other man seemed to be leaning on it to keep it shut.

"Y-yes, fine!" His voice came out far too high. "It's just that I am terribly afraid of spiders and you have a very large one on your shoulder."

"Spider...? You can see Anna?!?"

"It has a name? You couldn't have stuck with 'Creepy Crawly Death Dealer'?" Patton squeaked through the door.

_Ohnonono this is not good at all-_

"Uh Patton that's my soul animal...If you can see her then we're soulmates..."

There was a strangled noise from behind the door.

"O-oh. Oh gee I'm so sorry I-"

"Oh that's alright, it's not your fault if you're scared of spiders..."

But Patton didn't make any move to open the door.

Virgil was pretty sure this situation ticked at least three points on his 'List of Bad Things That Could Happen When I Meet My Soulmate', and five on his 'List of Bad Things That Could Happen When I Meet My Roommate'.

He felt _awful._ He really had to go and screw everything up did he? Why couldn't he have been normal and gotten something cute and fluffy for a soul animal, not a small tarantula? He loved Anna but now his soulmate - aka the cutest person he had ever seen - couldn't stand to be in the same room as them! He really did destroy everything good he got didn't he.

"I...I might be able to...um...get used to being around her..." came Patton's voice. "I really am sorry, I'm such a wimp-"

"Hey don't say that! It's not your fault you're afraid of spiders. If anything I'm the screw-up here-"

"No! If you continue to talk bad about yourself I will physically fight you!" Patton's voice came out a lot less shakily with that threat and Virgil snickered.

"You'd have to get past Anna to do that!" Then Virgil froze. _What if he just made Patton even more scared of Anna? What if-_

"Well that settles it then. I've _got_ to learn to be brave around her."

"Wait no! You don't have to change yourself for me! That's not healthy. Look, I'll just keep her out of sight or something..." he trailed off as the handle began to turn.

"Ok I-I'm coming in...can you make sure you're holding onto her please? Ok...I can do this...I can do this...

Virgil carefully scooped Anna out of his hoodie, cooing at her not to scuttle off. He moved away from the door to sit on his bed for good measure.

The door opened just enough for Patton to stick his head around...then he squeaked and slammed it shut again.

"S-sorry! Sorry! I'm just really nervous!"

"Hey, it's fine. Take as much time as you need." Virgil spoke softly in an attempt to both reassure his timid soulmate and so he wouldn't spook Anna.

The door slowly opened again and this time Patton managed to make it fully inside, but did dart very quickly to the other side of the room, putting as much distance between him and the Creepy Crawly Death Dealer as possible.

Over the course of the next fifteen minutes Virgil just held Anna in his hands, petting her gently to keep her calm, as Patton inched his way over, across the room, until he was sitting on the other end of Virgil's bed.

"Would it help to see or hold her, or do you just need some time to get used to being nearby?"

"Uh give me a little longer. I'll let you know..."

Patton was sitting very stiffly, eyes fixed intently on Virgil's cupped hands.

After a little while he spoke again.

"I-I think I can deal with seeing her now. B-but don't bring her any closer please!"

Virgil nodded and slowly opened his hands so Anna was sitting on his palm, his other hand still stoking her slowly.

Somehow Patton stiffened even more when he saw her, as if moving would make her attack. For a long time they just sat there, Patton's posture gradually relaxing. Then he took a deep breath, making Virgil wonder if he'd been breathing at all the entire time, and raised a hand to his head.

"L-Lily? Can you come down darling."

Virgil stared as Patton's hair rustled and, very slowly, a tiny green frog appeared, hopping onto Patton's upturned palm. Patton lowered his soul animal, Lily apparently, to the bed and the frog hopped down, staring at Anna.

"M-maybe if Anna and Lily greet each other, t-that might help." Patton's voice came out very quietly but with enough confidence that Virgil was persuaded to lower his own soul animal onto the blanket.

Both boys held their breath as little spider and tiny frog cautiously approached each other. They met in the middle, less than an inch apart, and seemed to have be having a silent conversation. It looked sort of like the amphibian/arachnid equivalent of when mammals give each other cautious sniffs.

Then the two creatures seemed to relax, and Lily's apparent approval of Anna gave Patton the confidence to speak again.

"O-ok. Ok I think I might be able to hold Anna now. B-but you might want to be on alert in case I shriek again." Patton seemed to be having to force himself to breath calmly.

Patton glanced to Virgil for permission and, when he received a nod, slowly, very slowly, reached out to place his hand on the bed halfway between himself and the spider.

Now Virgil was having to manually control his breathing too as he watched his Anna creep towards Patton, who flinched at the spider's first movement but didn't pull away. He did pull away for half a second when the spider first touched his hand, but he lowered it back, shaking slightly. Now he was just frozen as Anna carefully claimed onto his palm. And then...

He _giggled!_

And Virgil clapped a hand to him mouth to stop himself cheering.

"It tickles!" Patton laughed again, and Virgil knew he'd do anything to hear that noise for the rest of his life. There was a stupid grin on his face, matched only by the one on Patton's as he reached over with one finger and stroked the top of Anna's head. "Oh she's so sweet!"

He didn't otherwise move, and kept his hand as far from his body as possible, but it was so much more than Virgil had dared hope would happen.

Virgil jumped and reluctantly dragged his eyes away from Patton's face as something cold and wet touched his hand. Lily had hopped over and was staring up at him with a look that Virgil could only describe as impatient. He let her hop onto his hand and raised her up to run a finger down her back.

Then _he_ giggled! She was so slimy!

Virgil decided there and then that he adored his soulmate's animal, almost as much as he adored his soulmate.

Looking back up at Patton, Virgil could see he'd decided the same thing about Virgil's own animal. Patton finally felt able to take his eyes off Anna and looked up, locking eyes with Virgil, smile positively beaming. In that moment, both boys realised they had fallen for the other completely.

~~*~~

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


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